ABC iPad App Now Available!

[Photo: IntoMobile.com]

Dedicated to expanding its network and channel brands across multiple platforms and connecting viewers with their favorite shows anytime and anywhere, Disney/ABC Television Group has released a new version of its ABC Player app with additional features now that Apple's 3G iPad is available.

Frequently cited as one of the top "must-have" apps, the latest enhancements to ABC Player app include:
* Enhanced landscape viewing options
* Orientation lock support for all screens
* Parental ratings information for all available episodes
* Improved player controls for rewinding and fast-forwarding content
* 3G streaming support (requires a 3G enabled device)
The ABC Player app has been downloaded over 400,000 times since the iPad's April 3rd debut. In the first month, more than 1.5 million episodes of ABC series have been started via the app.

"The success of the ABC Player app reflects our commitment to delivering high-quality experiences on devices that fans of our shows use to complement their traditional TV viewing," said Anne Sweeney, co-chair, Disney Media Networks, and president, Disney/ABC Television Group. "Since taking the first step onto digital platforms more than four years ago, we continue to evolve with each technological advance, leveraging emerging platforms so that TV fans can engage with our content in ways that are relevant to their lives."

To date, the top five series viewed on the iPad are
* Lost
* Modern Family
* V
* Dancing with the Stars
* Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution

Extending the reach of ABC.com's full episode player onto the iPad, the ABC Player app enables users to watch ad-supported select episodes from a variety of popular ABC series. The application also allows iPad users to purchase downloads of episodes via the iTunes store. Designed, built and launched in less than five weeks, the ABC Player iPad app brings the full experience of ABC.com's Emmy Award-winning full episode player to a touch-screen, handheld device for the first time.

With the release of the ABC Player app, the Disney/ABC Television Group adds another first to their array of technical innovations, becoming the first network to offer ad-supported full episodes on the iPad. Other DATG firsts include:

* 1st to offer full episodes on iTunes (October 2005)
* 1st to stream ad-supported full episodes online (May 2006)
* 1st to offer full episodes on demand on a mobile platform (w/Sprint, May 2007)
* 1st to stream episodes online in true 720p HD (Fall 2007)
* 1st to offer expert and user commentary with full episodes online (Fall 2009)

The Disney/ABC Television Group is home to all of The Walt Disney Company's (NYSE: DIS) worldwide entertainment and news television properties. The Group includes the ABC Television Network (including ABC Daytime, ABC Entertainment Group and ABC News divisions); the Disney Channels Worldwide global kids' TV business, ABC Family and SOAPnet; as well as distribution and syndication divisions Disney/ABC Domestic Television and Disney Media Distribution. The Disney/ABC Television Group also manages the Radio Disney Network, general interest and non-fiction book imprint Hyperion, as well the Company's equity interest in A&E Television Networks.



(Source: ABC.com)

ABC's Statement on Cam and Mitch not Kissing on "Modern Family"

[Photo: ABC]

 

Michael Jensen of AfterElton.com has an exclusive statement by ABC on why Cam and Mitch are not kissing on "Modern Family".  After some fans created a Facebook page urging ABC to have the gay couple kiss onscreen, ABC addressed this issue and gave a statement regarding this.  I think we should respect the reasons why this particular gay couple is not showing their intimacy onscreen.  It would be unripe and unprepared if they will kiss now.  I'm sure there are some gay couples who do not show their emotion publicly and Cam and Mitchell are that kind of couple.  Let's just hope and not become pushy! Read ABC's statement on the AfterElton site.


(Source: AfterElton.com)

Modern Family is Sure to Have a Second Season

 [Photo: ABC]

During the winter Television Critics Association, Stephen McPherson of ABC Network has officially picked up "Modern Family", "Cougar Town", and "The Middle" for their second seasons.  Congratulations to all the crew and staff of "Modern Family", especially to the creators for a good job.  A delightful news to "Modern Family" fans because we will be seeing more of our Dunphy's, and Pritchett's for a long time.  Modern Family, has been high on the ratings, termed as most-watched new comedy this season.  Modern Family and the cast has been included in the list of nominations for the Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild, Directors Guild of America, Writers Guild of America, to name a few. 

(Source: TVGuide)

Modern Family - Nominated at the 16th Annual Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards

 [Photo: ABC]

Our comedy Wednesday's family, Modern Family TV series is  nominated in the 16th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards for the category Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series.  A show that is so new, fresh, yet funny, natural, and practical.  Not all new shows are given a chance to reach this point, not to mention that this is a comedy show.  Modern Family is not just pure luck but it is a pool of talents that make viewers laugh their hearts out.  The difference of this award giving body is that, actors in their own field are also the ones who vote on who gets to win.  Congratulations to Christopher Lloyd and Steven Levitan for this nomination.

(Source: Screen Actors Guild Awards)

Modern Family and the 67th Annual Golden Globe Awards

 [Photo: ABC]

This is really good news for Modern Family TV series fans out there.  It is nominated for the category Best Television Series - Comedy or Musical.  It's rivals are 30 Rock (NBC), Glee (FOX), Entourage (HBO), and The Office (NBC).  As you all know, this mockumentary only started this fall but it has managed to be included in the nominations list together with some shows that have been on air long before.  I wish Modern Family shines on the Golden Globe Awards.



(Source: The Hollywood Foreign Press Association)

More of "Modern Family" in 2010

[Photo: ABC]

ABC network has ordered the full-season for Modern Family and other comedy shows that passed the ratings and performed well during the launch of the Fall premiere.  Thank God for comedy Wednesdays!  See the full story in Michael Ausiello's Files at EW.

(Source: Ausiello Files)

ABC Start Now - Show Preview

ABC Start Now shows a preview of what's to come on ABC primetime. It includes Modern Family which is one of the most talked about and most awaited comedy show in the fall premiere.

Cast of Modern Family

POP Tower shows us the characters inside Modern Family.  What is good about Modern Family is that it depicts somehow a picture of our own families or the family that we always want to belong with.  And I think it is the reason why many are going to watch Modern Family on Sept. 23.



ABC's comedy "Modern Family" takes a bird's eye view of today's American families which come in all shapes and sizes. The cookie cutter mold of man + wife + 2.5 kids is a thing of the past, as it becomes quickly apparent in "Modern Family," which takes an honest and often hilarious look at the composition and complexity of family life in 2009.

Take for example Phil and Claire, two parents who want to have that open, healthy, honest relationship with their three kids on ABC's "Modern Family." It's not always easy, especially when you have a teenage daughter who's growing up a little fast, a too-smart-for-her-own-good middle daughter and a rambunctious boy. On top of that, Phil wants to be the "cool dad," while Claire is just trying her best to run a tight ship on "Modern Family," determined not to let her kids have the rebellious childhood she had.
Then there's Jay, a true guys' guy who is having a bit of mid-life crisis on "Modern Family." Jay has found a much younger wife, Gloria, who has become the center of his world. She's a passionate and sassy divorcee who comes with an 11-year-old son, Manny. Already taking notice of girls and a hopeless romantic, Manny is as passionate as his mom and spends his time daydreaming and writing poetry on "Modern Family." His new step-father isn't altogether comfortable with the sensitive stuff and would like to toughen Manny up. But that's only one of Jay's challenges on "Modern Family." The biggest is that people often mistake him for Gloria's father, not her husband.

And lastly there's Mitchell and his partner of five years, Cameron. They've just taken that amazing "next step" by adopting a child together from Vietnam. Cameron has a wonderfully big personality and maybe a flare for the dramatic, whereas Mitchell is the more serious of the two on "Modern Family." But they balance each other out and are already doting fathers.

Life, it seems, is neither tidy nor politically correct. Yet that's just what makes it fun and interesting in this window into the sometimes warm, sometimes twisted embrace of three modern families.

"Modern Family" stars Ed O'Neill as Jay, Julie Bowen as Claire, Ty Burrell as Phil, Sofía Vergara as Gloria, Jesse Tyler Ferguson as Mitchell, Eric Stonestreet as Cameron, Sarah Hyland as Haley, Nolan Gould as Luke, Ariel Winter as Alex and Rico Rodriguez as Manny.

"Modern Family" is produced by Twentieth Century Fox Television in association with Levitan Lloyd Productions. Steven Levitan and Christopher Lloyd are executive producers/creators. The pilot for "Modern Family" was directed by Jason Winer, who also serves as co-executive producer on the series.


(Source: POP Tower)

A Twist in the Ending of Modern Family

 

[Photo: ABC.com]

The three families are related after all!  Read on for the full story.

'Modern Family' marketing to reveal twist

The producers of ABC's deeply funny "Modern Family" said the network is taking a new approach to the pilot's twist ending (spoiler coming up).

The big reveal at the end of the first episode is the three wildly different couples introduced mockumentary style throughout the episode are actually part of the same family. At press tour, a critic asks the "Modern Family" producers why they've been banned from revealing the ending since viewers are going to know after the pilot airs anyway.

"We kept finding people who watched the pilot -- even writers who were cynical people -- they would be genuinely surprised at that moment," said executive producer Steve Levitan. "But apparently what ABC has discovered is one of the strengths of the show is that they're part of the same family."

So instead of trying to play it coy, ABC is going to market the show as what it is, not just what it initially appears to be.

(Source: The Live Feed)